The Specimen

In Kahle’s hefty, unimaginative debut, ancient aliens have spent millennia controlling and merging with humans, taking over the identities of those they possess. Developing a diverse cast of characters, Kahle creates disparate narrative threads that chart the aliens’ gradual takeover of society. This could be a sharp and inventive tale of alien invasion, but Kahle relies heavily on clichés to move his plot forward. A history of the aliens is told at the expense of memorable characterization. Fans of horror will recognize elements borrowed from Alien and the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Perhaps the most jarring aspect of the story is the elimination of the complexities of real-world history. For instance, Kahle remarks that the Holocaust would not have been so horrendous had alien involvement not been a factor. This trivialization of one of the world’s worst atrocities—and of the human capacity for evil—is in extremely poor taste. Kahle’s work adds little to the genre. [em](BookLife) [/em]